Maynard earns place in third straight state final

Saturday

Mar 10, 2018 at 6:30 PMMar 13, 2018 at 12:05 PM

Martin Renzhofer mrenzhofer@wickedlocal.com @mrenzhofer

The Maynard boys are back in familiar territory - playing for a state championship.

On March 12 at American International College in Springfield, the Tigers routed Pioneer Valley, 70-38, and will advance to Saturday's final against the No. 1 seed from the North, Pope John (22-1), a 78-35 winner against Austin Prep.

Maynard led by 16 at the half and cruised to victory to make its third straight appearance in the State Division final, which it won last year.

Now the work really begins.

"Pope John is loaded," Maynard coach Paul Howes said. "They will be the best team we've played this year, hands down."

Pope John came out of a Division 4 North section that includes Cathedral, a team that beat Maynard by 20 earlier this season.

"This will be our toughest test," Howes said.

The Division 4 state semifinal was anything but as Maynard boys and Pioneer Valley played even for a quarter before Tommy Smith and Chris Bastien took over. Smith scored 24 points, while Bastien had 18. Ian Fowler and Corey Olivier combined for 17 points.

"Tommy was terrific and Chris played well," Howes said. "Once we started picking up the tempo they began missing shots.

"Because we've been in this situation, we don't put a lot of emphasis on what the other team does, we put the emphasis on what we can do.

"And we didn't have to rely on Corey [Olivier] to score."

Maynard needed Olivier on March 10. And although the senior was having the game of his life, the defending two-time Division 4 Central champions struggled against the bigger, quicker top-seeded Eagles of Worcester Tech.

Howes made a decision. As it turned out, it was the perfect one for a division three-peat.

“We played zone the whole game and it wasn’t going well for us,” Howes said. “But we had so much respect for their athleticism and speed we were worried about playing man.”

Howes took his players back to the basics – a hard man-to-man defense.

That change in strategy, the No. 3-seeded Tigers (24-3) experience and, of course, Olivier's effort changed the entire story of the basketball game as Maynard dominated the fourth quarter to earn a hard-fought 61-50 victory at WPI.

“I really don’t know what it was,” Olivier said about the victory. “I really don’t know what to say. I really don’t.”

Olivier’s play said enough. The senior guard, shooting long-range bombs or driving through a maze of defenders, scored 16 points to help keep Maynard close in the first half and finished with a game-high 28.

“I was just going with the flow of the game,” Olivier said. “Whatever they gave us, that was what I was going to try and do. It worked out.”

The Tigers had begun to dig into the Worcester Tech (22-4) advantage. Down by seven at the half, Maynard took a 37-36 lead on a Smith 3-point goal.

However, the Eagles, behind their powerful post Branden Hamilton and wings Victor Florentino and Zaire Peart, led by five early in the fourth.

Then Fowler, a sophomore, in the face of Worcester’s looming defense, buried a pair of 3-point goals.

Olivier scored on a pair of drives and Smith, who also began to rebound better, floated a basket over Hamilton and the Tigers owned a 57-50 lead with 1 minute, 20 seconds to play.

Along the way, Joshua Dornelas threw his body into the fray, disrupting WT’s advantage inside. The junior didn’t score a point, but made his impact felt.

And suddenly, what had been a question turned into a statement.

“It’s not coaching,” Howes said. “We just have some special, gifted people. Tommy was huge in the fourth quarter. Ian made some big shots.”

Bastien, Maynard's center, did not start well, but he carved out some room underneath and finished with 12 points. This included a dunk to finish the game.

Smith and Fowler had nine each and eighth-grade guard Kyle Monahan, who picked up a loose ball and fed Bastien for the slam, contributed three points.

Florentino finished 18 and Peart 11, but most of their total came in the first half. Hamilton added eight.

“Corey’s good,” Howes said. “A special player. They did a great job [defensively] and he just kept at it. In the fourth quarter we made some big plays. Some really big plays.”